Tablets and phones have fully integrated themselves into our classrooms and with them come the bevy of applications that seem to multiply daily. Many of these apps are aimed at students or advertise themselves as educational, but are they always appropriate for classroom use? Should you try to integrate them into your lessons?

Apple has a guide to use when evaluating apps that will help you figure all that out. The guide itself isn’t that long and is worth a read, but I have three take-aways from it which I’d like to pass along.

Start with the objective, not the app. One of the suggestions in the guide is to find apps that fit what you’re trying to teach. They start with a whole list of questions to ask about your objectives and lesson plans that will help steer you in the right direction. Not all lessons need or would benefit from apps, so think of the topics and objectives which would be enhanced by using technology and find apps that fit what you’re looking for.

Engagement is more than just clicking. The first area of evaluation Apple suggests you look at is the apps ability to engage. By engage, they don’t mean that the student will keep the app open or keep coming back to it, but also that the app is inviting, easy to learn, and will provide the student with a new experience.

Design matters. Not just the way the app looks, but the way that its information is passed on. There’s a whole topic area to help you evaluate an apps instructional design. Small things like the apps art work and menu layout can also determine how much a student will get from an app.